only love can dig you out of this
by piperreynas
Summary: "piper can see her soulthreads. it's something that doesn't really register as strange until she goes to school, just like her skin color, and the feathers she likes to weave into her braid." or: the 'red string of fate' soulmate au, eventual piper/reyna, mentions of jason/piper and jason/reyna; canon compliant.
1. one

Piper can see her soulthreads. It's something that doesn't really register as _strange_ until she goes to school, just like her skin color, and the feathers she likes to weave into her braid. The counselors in fifth grade tell her she's probably just confused because no one can see their threads for more than a few seconds after they come in. She stops talking soon after that, but the stories follow her no matter how hard she tries to get rid of them. (Her mother is a psychopath or a drug addict or dead, her father is a klepto or a deadbeat, but he probably doesn't exist, the girls say, giggling, because nothing that crawls out of the dumpster has _parents.)_

She has a lot of threads. She knows that she has a navy blue thread for her dad, a thread for Grandpa Tom that's shriveled up since he died, and a pink thread that stretches off into the distance for her soulmate. But there's a few on her thumb that she has no explanation for- a lime green thread that loops around her thumb, four threads one on top of the other banded around her middle finger, a gold one on her pinky.

The kids at school think she's crazy when she tells them. They call her an attention whore from across the cafetorium and whisper about her mother when they think she can't hear. It only gets worse after the stunt she pulls with at the BMW lot. The whispers get louder, and on her bad days she believes them.

* * *

Reyna sees her soulthread once, briefly, after she and Hylla escape from Blackbeard. It's glowing a bright cherry pink. She looks away so she can fend of a pirate that's followed them from the ship and when she looks back at her hand the thread has seemingly disappeared. Hylla doesn't like to talk about hers, but sometimes when she gets scared or angry or lonely, she twists the ring finger on her left hand- where her soulmate thread is supposed to be. Reyna wonders sometimes if her sister imagines the same things she does late at night when she's left alone with her thoughts: warm hands and soft words and bright smiles.

She's never really believed in soulmates so she usually tries to ignore her loneliness but it isn't until she meets Lupa and her wolves that she can really forget. Camp Jupiter is amazing. There are people here who understand her, people here who can help her because they actually _do_ know what she's been through, an entire city of them. There is order here, routines and training and rules that she can lose herself in. Camp Jupiter is _perfect,_ even if Hylla doesn't think so.

* * *

Piper thinks Jason might be her soulmate- and why wouldn't he be? He's handsome and smart and considerate, like a blond Superman, and he really likes her. (or he did, before the amnesia thing.) It's perfect, _he's_ perfect, except for the fact that she doesn't like him that way. (She doesn't like _boys_ that way, and even if she did and he was her soulmate, she'd never know- her threads disappeared as soon as she walked into the Wilderness School, and Jason can barely remember his own name, much less _her._ )

* * *

Reyna thinks Jason might be her soulmate. He's her best friend, her right hand man- he's the only who's really cared about her since Hylla. He's everything she imagined, all those lonely nights ago.

Dakota says all best friends fall in love with each other at some point. Of course, Reyna knows better than to trust Dakota, but she wants it to be true more than she'd care to admit. (She's so _lonely_.)

* * *

 _Piper is fourteen when she realizes that she might not be as normal as she's convinced herself she is. She's looking at Isabel Gonzalez when it hits her, the realization that she's never felt anything that she's supposed to for a boy, but she's loved before (or at lease she thinks she has). She's loved little Sally from daycare with her blond curls and baby blues and strange affinity for tripping on air, Anjali from grade school with wide inquisitive brown eyes and henna patterns swirling up her arms who sat inside with her and colored, who helped her forget the taunts about her heritage, her parents. When Isabel flips her long black locks and turns those hazel eyes on her, she picks up her stuff and runs out, heading straight for her father's favorite stretch of beach._

 _Jane finds her crying into her hands an hour later. In a rare display of concern, her father's assistant sits down in the sand next to her and places a hand on her shoulder. "Piper?" she asks slowly. "What's wrong?"_ _Piper shakes her head still crying._

 _Jane tries another approach. "If you don't tell me, I'll be forced to call your father and tell him that you were skipping school."_ _She looks up then, shaking her head panickedly. "Okay," Jane says, soothingly. "I won't tell your dad if you tell what's going on."_

 _Piper sniffs. "I like girls the way I'm supposed to like boys."_

 _Jane blinks. "Oh," she says softly._

 _"There's something wrong with me, isn't there?"_

 _Jane's eyes flash, and she grabs Piper's shoulder. "_ No. _There is_ nothing _wrong with you. Don't you_ ever _, let anyone tell you that you're broken. You understand?" Piper nods. Jane gives her a small smiles and pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Don't tell anyone, but...I think girls are better than boys too."_

* * *

Jason comes back six months after he vanishes, hand-in-hand with another girl ( _Venus' daughter_ ). Reyna is so livid she can barely see straight, and the fact that Percy is nearly jumping out his skin next to her doesn't help either. She doesn't know how she manages to stay calm enough to watch Percy and Annabeth reunite without crying.

She also doesn't know why she's so mad- she didn't have any claim to him whatsoever, and even if she did, he probably wouldn't have remembered her, _but._ But Percy remembered Annabeth; Percy remembered his best friend, and she should have been able to hope that he'd come back to her without getting it thrown back in her face _again_ , dammit.

It only gets worse after the girl (Jason's girl is named Piper, she learns later) tries to charmspeak them into compliance, then blows up half of New Rome with her vaguely elfin friend. When she closes her eyelids at the end of the day, all she can she is Annabeth Chase's face, apologetic on behalf of the other boy, resigned to the fact that something is going to go wrong. It reminds her of what she feels everyday when she thinks of the rest of Circe's girls- resigned, but so so sorry for their deaths, for her own loss.

* * *

The first thing Piper thinks when she sees Reyna is _holy shit_. But not in the 'how the fuck am I supposed to compete with _that'_ sort of way, but in the 'hot damn' sort of way. Which is admittedly not how you're supposed to think about your kind of boyfriend's ex-something, but even Annabeth is sort of checking her out _so._ Reyna is _beautiful_.

Piper swallows hard, studying the way Reyna's hand flexes over her bicep and Jason squeezes her hand comfortingly mistaking her awe for nervousness. A pit opens up in her stomach when she realizes that if she doesn't tell someone she will force herself into living a live with a man she cannot ever truly love.

* * *

Reyna finds herself thinking more and more about Piper McLean in the weeks that follow the bombing. At first her thoughts are mainly about how much she resents the other girl for doing in six months what she hadn't managed to do in over six _years_. And then it turns to speculation- how is Jason around her? What is _she_ like? And after that Reyna starts to imagine Piper with _her_ , starts to imagine taking Piper for a walk around the temples, drinking hot chocolate with her in New Rome, waking up next to her, and she immediately sits up.

It's not so much the fact that she's imagining herself with another girl that bothers her- she's used to it by now, knowing a girl, falling for a girl, wanting to be _with_ her, and then realizing you can't have her -it's the fact that the _girl_ she is imagining is Piper fucking McLean, daughter of _Venus_ , who is currently dating Jason, Jason Grace who was her's at one point, Jason Grace who is Piper's now.

She finds herself mimicking Hylla sometimes when she thinks of Piper, twisting the phantom soulthread band around her ring finger. One day, instead of feeling calloused skin like she usually does, she feels thread warpped around her finger. She stops cold and when she looks at her hand-

-there's nothing there. She exhales slowly.

* * *

Piper thinks about Reyna a lot, to the point where she sometimes imagines Reyna in Jason's place. It happens once at night when they're alone, and she freezes, pulling away so fast she almost smacks her head against the wall of his room on the Argo II. "Did I do something?" Jason asks, tentatively smoothing the newly formed wrinkles in his t-shirt.

Piper nearly laughs. "No," she says. _It's me not you_ , she thinks and for some reason that only makes her want to laugh harder.

Jason frowns. "Then what..?"

Piper shakes her head. "It's nothing." _I just won't ever love you the way you want me to_. "I'm just super tired," she says, offering him a weak smile. She kisses him on the cheek. "See you tomorrow."

* * *

Annabeth Chase calls Reyna in the middle of the night to see if she can come to their Grecian warship that is currently floating above an ocean. She doesn't know why she agrees, but she finds herself on the Argo II almost a couple days later. Her judgement could be blamed on a lot of things- her sleep addled brain, her dissatisfaction with life as a Praetor, the fact that the fate of the world rests on the Seven and by extension her acceptance of Annabeth's invitation. Piper McLean.

Even though she takes rather drastic measures to avoid her, she always seems to run into Piper. One night, she finds herself face to face with Piper in the pegasi stables. "Hey!" Piper says awkwardly. Reyna smiles just as awkwardly in return and goes back to petting Scipio. "Thank you for coming over," Piper continues, sounding a little more confident.

Reyna snorts. "It wasn't like I had a choice."

Piper laughs a little too shortly. "Look, since we're going to be working together to save the world...and stuff, I don't want this stuff between you and Jason and I to be make things weird."

"It wasn't weird until you mentioned Jason," Reyna says, smiling. Piper gives her a look that she doesn't have the energy to try and understand. "How is that going by the way?" Reyna asks, tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear.

Piper's expression turns a little regretful as she plops down on top of a hay bale. "I...It's not."

"Oh?"

Piper backtracks. "Well, he thinks it is, but I can't...I'm lesbian and I haven't told him yet."

Reyna blinks, surprised, and coughs. "Okay. I think I'm stating the obvious when I say this, but you have to tell him. As soon as possible."

"I can't tell him _now,_ he-"

"Jason will be _fine_. He always is. We have an obligation to live our lives the way we want to, and if that means being with a girl, then that's the way it goes."

Piper scowls. " _We_ don't have to do anything, I-" She stops suddenly and there's a moment of silence before she slumps against one of the walls in the stables. " _Oh,_ " she says softly, staring wide eyed at Reyna.

Reyna frowns, steeping forward, and then it hits her, a shock wave almost like an explosion. She hits the floor like a sack of flour, panting for breath. "What-" She looks down at her hand to see a thread on her ring finger, glowing so bright that it almost blinds her, leading to...Piper. Her eyes widen to the size of dinner plates and she clenches her other hand. She looks at Scipio who's pacing around, whinnying worriedly, and this time when she looks back at her hand, the thread is still there. "Okay," she says dazed. "Okay," she repeats, trying to talk herself down.

Piper stands up weakly without really looking at anything, looking about the same as Reyna feels, scared and confused. "I have to..." she grabs the wall for support as the dizziness hits her. "I have to go."

And Reyna...Reyna curls up on the floor and cries like she hasn't in years.

* * *

notes: i am aroace, not lesbian so if i wrote anything that was inaccurate or offensive let me know and i will fix it; this is my first time writing lgbt+ material so i'm still trying to figure this out. other than that, please _please_ read and review because that's the only payment fic writers receive. i also haven't read blood of olymous in a while so i probably messed up a lot of details about how reyna got to the argo ii, but just go with it i guess. i may come back and fix it.


	2. two

Piper avoids Reyna for a week. It's exactly what Reyna expects and not at the same time; she doesn't know what she wants and she does. Everyone on the ship notices within days and how could they not, while keeping such close quarters with each other?

Jason, who notices last somehow, corners her one day after breakfast. "Why is my girlfriend avoiding you?" he asks, crossing his arms and trying to look intimidating (which is absurd because she's known Jason since he started running- he could never be intimidating to her, not while she still remembers the face he made the first time he ran into a wall).

The word _girlfriend_ makes something in her stomach twist, echoes around her brain like a siren.

"Did Piper say something?" he presses. He frowns. "Did _you_ say something?" he adds, like he's just realized that she might have something _to_ say about the situation he's landed the three of them in. Over his shoulder, Reyna sees Piper watching, the expression on her face morphing into something between sorrow and interest, maybe anger as Piper locks eyes with Reyna. When she looks down at her hand she can still see the soulthread on her finger leading to Piper, pulsing in time with their heartbeats.

She looks back up to see Jason giving her his patented _we need to talk_ look, raised eyebrow and all. He opens his mouth and before he can something stupid ( _are you okay?_ ) or predictable ( _you can talk to me, you know?_ ) or _both_ , Reyna sighs, turns, and walks away.

* * *

Piper avoids Reyna for a week. Not by choice, she rationalizes, but because she doesn't know what she's supposed to _say_ to Reyna, if she's supposed to say something at all. She doesn't have any precedent for something like this. (That's a lie (she seems to be doing that a lot lately- lying). Even without a precedent, Piper knows radio silence probably isn't the healthiest solution but what can she do? It's not like Reyna is helping the situation either. It's not Piper's fault that Reyna's so unapproachable, it's not Piper's fault that all Reyna does is _stare_ , it's not Piper's fault that Reyna hasn't stopped avoiding her either. And so they stay locked in their stalemate.)

It gets so bad that eventually Percy has to pull her aside one day. "You need to talk to her," he says without any prompting whatsoever. "If not for you or for Reyna, then for the rest our sanities or for the millions of people we have to save. You two can't keep walking on eggshells."

Piper tries to play dumb. "I don't-"

Percy shakes his head. "Save it. This is the twenty first century, Piper, and we all have eyes." Piper looks down at her hands.

"You can talk to me, you know," Percy says quietly, smiling in a way she hasn't quite seen before. "We kind of have to if we're going to survive the next few months in this tin can."

Piper looks down and kicks the floor in a way that will probably scuff her shoes which doesn't matter to her as long as she can avoid Share Your Feelings Time! with one of the most perceptive people on this floating death trap. (Besides, there is a very high chance that she'll never go shoe shopping again, even if she does make it through this alive.) Percy sighs. "If you don't talk I'll get the others and we'll just lock you and Reyna in a closet."

"We're soulmates," Piper says on a sigh that morphs into a laugh. " _Soulmates_ ," she repeats trying to convince herself that this is really happening.

"What did you do? When... _it..._ happened?"

Piper winces. "I ran."

Percy sighs too, running a hand through his hair. "Well shit."

Piper laughs again, sounding more than a little hysterical. "My sentiments exactly."

* * *

Despite all of Piper's calculated timing and Reyna's indifference, they wind up _having_ to talk the next week at breakfast. It's Piper who starts as Reyna butters a piece of toast. "So..."

"So?" Reyna prompts, summoning a muffin too.

"I..."

"You?" Reyna echoes, looking more than a little amused. Piper coughs, blushing and pretends to take a sip out of her empty glass. "That's that then," Reyna says, giving her a strange look then whirling around on her heel more than a little dramatically (which is something Piper hadn't thought Reyna was capable of) and walking back to her bunk.

"Wait!" Piper blurts. Reyna stops. Piper sighs. "We need to talk."

Reyna laughs, turning around. "It's about time," she says, smiling around a bite of her muffin.

"Oh shut _up_ ," Piper grumbles, stalking into the stables and pulling a smiling Reyna along with her.

"So," Reyna says after Piper shuts the door, only a little mockingly. Piper throws a piece if hay at her. Reyna settles down next to Scipio who nuzzles her neck and tries to eat her braid even as she gently pushes him away. "What are you going to do about Jason?"

Piper winces at that. "I don't know."

Reyna smiles. "You do know that this isn't the first time this has happened to him right?"

Piper looks up so fast Reyna swears she hears _her_ neck creaks in protest. " _What?_ "

"It was a girl in New Rome. I don't remember her name," Reyna says. (That's a lie. The girl's name was Jenna. Reyna remembers that, along with almost everything else about her- the way she smiled, the way her eyes changed colors in the sunlight, the twisting feeling in her gut that only ever appeared when Jenna was with Jason. At the time she though it was because she wanted to _be_ Jenna. Now she isn't so sure.) "She came out to him about two months into their relationship and Jason acted as her beard for a few more weeks while she...figured everything out, and then they broke up. They went out for coffee regularly for a while after the break up, to catch up, and then...this happened."

Piper exhales. "Is that supposed to pressure me into telling him?"

"No. It's supposed to help you realize that Jason will be _fine_. I want you to take your time, Piper," Reyna says looking down at her sword, "but you and I both know we might not have much time left."

Piper nods, sucking in a breath. "What about you?" she asks, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. A lock of hair falls into her face and Reyna's fingers twitch as she tries to repress the urge to tuck it behind her ear.

"What?" Reyna asks, absentmindedly.

"Jason will be fine but what about you?"

Reyna caves, reaching across the tiny room they're in and cupping Piper's cheek for a few seconds longer than necessary as she moves Piper's fringe of bangs. "I'm your soulmate, Piper," she says, ignoring the way her hands start to shake, "we'll figure it out." And she will. For Piper.

* * *

Jason almost dies three days later. It's not one of the dracenae or the hellhounds or the storm spirits that nearly kills him though- it's _himself_. In typical fashion, Jason had been overworking himself for weeks without telling anyone. None of them are very happy with him when he wakes up, some more so than others. As soon as his eyelids begin to flutter open, Leo blurts, "What the _fuck_ were you thinking, man?"

Jason coughs and sits up a little. "I'm fine."

"The hell you are. You were unconcious for _two days_ , Jason. You nearly _di_ _ed_ ," Leo says crossing his arms.

Jason smiles, soft and sweet, and his fingers twitch as if they're trying to find something. "Leo," he starts, and Piper's stomach flips at the realization that Jason's subconciously reaching for _Leo_ , that he's never once looked at her like that, that he hasn't ever said her name with this much care or affection. "I'm going to be fine," he echoes, his smile growing even wider as Leo seems to soften, arms uncrossing, shoulders drooping. Piper feels stupid now, foolish for having chalked all those silent conversations and lingering touches up to _friendship_.

Leo harrumps and slumps down onto Jason's cot, pacified for the time being, Frank and Hazel fidget uncomfortably as if to say, Annabeth and Percy share a look before he turns to Piper and raises an eyebrow as if to say _there's your excuse._ Reyna merely smiles.

Jason corners Reyna again as soon as he's able to walk a foot without Leo hovering over him. "She came out to me," he blurts one day as she's about take a drink.

"Who did?" Reyna asks, raising an eyebrow at him over the rim of her glass.

"Piper," Jason says, eyes flitting over the room hurriedly. "We have to finish talking before Leo finds me. He's probably already coerced Frank into helping him."

"So what did you say?"

"When?" he says, only half listening.

"When the banana fell off the roof," she deadpans.

" _What?_ " he asks, finally looking away from where Frank has morphed into a grizzly. Reyna gives him an exasperated look. "Oh right, _that._ Okay."

"And...?"

"What do you mean _and_? I said okay, and then she told me we had to break up, and then I said okay. Again."

Reyna blinks. "Your _girlfriend_ came out to you as a lesbian and then dumped you and all you said was _okay,"_ she says flatly.

"We both know I'm not the most skilled at...interpersonal communications."

"...You were _praeto_ _r_ before you were kidnapped, Jase. 'Interpersonal communications' is almost 80 percent of your job description."

"...Whatever."

Reyna rolls her eyes. "She knows too," she tells him, in a solemn tone.

He raises an eyebrow. "About?"

"About you and Leo. Don't even try to play dumb." He looks down at his feet. "You're soulmates aren't you?"

Jason nods, then shrugs, blushing and clearing his throat. "So we're cool then," he states.

"Not quite." Reyna fidgets. "Has she told you about...the other thing?"

"What other thing?"

Reyna lets out a breath. "It's not my thing to tell," she says cryptically.

Jason squints at her. "Well then how the fuck am I supposed to know if I know the thing?"

Reyna tilts her head. "I hadn't thought about that," she says, before walking out of the room.

"What the fuck?" Jason whispers to the floor.

* * *

"Did Reyna tell you?" Piper asks, slamming her plate on the table and giving Jason an expectant look.

He pauses mid bite. "What thing?"

Piper makes an disgruntled noise in the back of her throat. "The _thing_."

"What thing? You can't keep doing this, just _tell me_ -"

Piper scowls and leaves, stomping all the way back to her bunk.

"What about your food?" Jason asks.

"Leave it!" Piper yells so loudly that is startles poor Buford.

* * *

"She told me to tell you," Reyna announces coolly, falling into step beside him.

"Tell me _what_?" Jason growls.

"You know," Reyna says innocently, clasping her hands together in front of her and looking up at him through her lashes, letting her lips quirk up, "the _thing_." Jason walks away.

"We're soulmates," Reyna says, so quietly he almost misses it.

Jason stops. "When did you find out?"

"About two weeks before she broke up with you. She couldn't figure out to tell you, that's all," Reyna adds hurriedly, noting his skeptical look.

Jason swallows. "Okay."

"Really _? Again?"_ Reyna asks incredulously.

Jason flails his arms. "I don't know what I'm supposed to say! Good for you, I guess?"

Reyna relaxes. "So you're okay with this?"

"Why wouldn't I be? I can't exactly pretend to have the moral highground what with Leo."

Reyna nods and fidgets with her empty sheath. "Cool beans."

" _Cool beans_? And you thought _I_ was ridiculous-"

"Oh shut _up._ "

* * *

Reyna walks into Piper's room almost regally, her long coat floating behind her like a train. "I told him," she tells Piper, flopping down onto Piper's mattress like they've been doing this forever, and it's so incongrous in comparison to the Reyna she knew before- put-together and queenly, that she has to laugh a little.

"Told him what?"

"That we're soulmates," Reyna says, turning to face Piper. The syrupy afternoon light slips through Piper's blinds, spills over Reyna's jaw and she looks so fucking _soft_ it's takes every fiber of Piper's self control to lie still.

"What did he say?" Piper asks, too distracted by Reyna's long lashes to be nervous. (They've never been this close to each other, she notices. Strange.)

"Okay."

Piper wrinkles her nose. "Again?" Reyna laughs so hard she nearly falls off the mattress.

(The next morning they walk into the kitchen hand-in-hand to find Leo bustling around the kitchen with Jason plastered to his back.)

* * *

notes: this was soo fun to write, even if it took forever! as always pls read and comment and follow/favorite.

if you wanna yell with me about these girls, find me on tumblr piperreynas (my wlw/fic blog) or acehazels (my main).


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